


Baby's Breath

by eightprince



Category: B.A.P
Genre: Alternate Universe - Kindergarten & Pre-school, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-06 07:12:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11595531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eightprince/pseuds/eightprince
Summary: in which Yongguk and Himchan are in the same kindergarten class





	Baby's Breath

It's Himchan's first day of kindergarten, and he's feeling all sorts of emotions that he's never felt before.

He's only six years old. He can't comprehend feelings just yet. All he knows is happy, sad, mad, sleepy, and hungry.

He cried when his mother dropped him off at daycare when he was a younger everyday for the first month, but slowly, he got better at holding back his tears and realizing that she’ll be back eventually.

His mother asked him if he'd cry when she dropped him off to his classroom.

"I'm a big boy," he replied, smiling and showing off his missing tooth.

As long as he has his juice box, his teddy bear, and his backpack full of coloring books and crayons, he'll be fine.

Despite this, he still clings to his mother as she walks him into the classroom.

Children he's never seen before are screaming and throwing things around, and that’s really scary.

His mother kneels down to his height to ruffle his hair, "It'll be okay. It's just for a few hours."

"I wanna go home," he whimpers. He promised himself and his mother that he wouldn't cry.

Not in front of these dumb littke kids, at least.

His mother showers him with kisses, making him to giggle, "Make some new friends, okay?"

"But I'm shy."

"You don't even know what that means," his mother places one last kiss on his forehead, "Go out there and make new friends. Do it for me, and I'll take you out for ice cream. How does that sound?”

Himchan's eyes light up at the thought of ice cream.

He nods, "That sounds nice. I’ll try."

"Good," his mother stands to her feet, "You have a good day at school, okay?"

Himchan holds his arms out for one last hug, and his mother lifts him off the floor and hugs him tightly.

He's full of giggles and smiles. He's still nervous, but at least he won't cry.

His mother carries him in her arms (keep in mind that he's six years old) as she helps him look for his seat.

He insists that he can find it himself because he's able to read and write. He knows his numbers and his alphabet, and he can count to twenty.

Not a lot of kids can do that yet.

There's a white name tag on a table that says "Himchan" in cute pink bubble letters.

There's a boy sitting beside Himchan's name tag, turnt around and talking to someone that looks exactly like him.

At least, they're trying to communicate with each other.

Himchan's mother sets him in his chair, "Play nice, okay?"

"Okay."

She gives him one last smile before turning to leave, "Have a good day!"

He smiles at her as he watches her leave, and his smile immediately falters when he realizes he's stuck with all these annoying children for a while.

He digs into his backpack to pull out some crayons until someone tugs on his shirt sleeve.

He turns around to face the boy that wanted his attention.

The boy smiles a bright smile, "Hi."

"Hi," Himchan smiles back at him, but it was more of a shy smile.

"You're Himchan, right?"

Himchan nods.

"My brother thinks your name is cool," the boy taps his brother's shoulder, "Go say hi."

The other boy doesn't say anything. He holds his tigger plush toy close to his chest.

"He's really quiet," the boy says, "He's not very good at talking, either."

"Are you two clones?" Himchan asks, noticing that they look almost exactly alike. It freaks him out a little.

"We're twins," the boy says, "I'm Yongnam, and he's Yongguk."

Yongguk looks up from his toy when he hears his name being called.

"Say hi," Yongnam repeats.

"H...hi...hi," Yongguk mumbles.

"Good job."

Yongnam smiles at Yongguk, ruffling his hair, but he doesn't smile back.

He's shy. Really shy.

His vocabulary is limited, more limited than the average six year old. He's starting out late, so that means he can't really talk yet. 

Yongnam teaches him everything he knows so Yongguk won't get picked on.

Nobody wants to see two six year olds fight on the first day of kindergarten.

"Tell Himchan your name," Yongnam says, calmly.

"Bang," Yongguk mumbles.

"Your first name."

"It's Yongguk."

"Good. Now in a complete sentence. What's your name?"

"My name....it's Bang Yongguk."

"Good. How old are you?"

"I'm six years old," Yongguk holds up six fingers, "Six. Six years old."

"Good."

A small smile appears on Yongguk's face when Yongnam praises him.

Himchan smiles at him too, and that makes Yongguk smile a little bigger.

"I'm...trying my best to, um, talk," Yongguk says, "But it's very...very hard. But I'm trying my best."

"It's okay," Himchan says, "I understand you just fine."

Yongguk isn't too sure what "understand" means.

"What's that?" He asks.

"Huh?"

"What is 'understand'?"

"Um, everything you say makes sense to me."

"Ah," Yongguk nods and shies away a little.

"What do you say?" Yongnam whispers.

"Thank...thank you very much."

"You're welcome," Himchan notices the plush tiger Yongguk's holding onto, "What's that?"

"It's mine," Yongguk replies quietly.

"What is it?"

"Mine," he raises his voice a little, just a little, not enough to scare Himchan or make him cry. But it makes him flinch.

"Hey, hey," Yongnam nudges his shoulder, "Be nice."

Yongguk purses his lips.

"Say you're sorry."

"I'm...sorry, Yongguk mumbles, “Very sorry.”

Himchan's quick to let the matter go, "It's okay," he gives him a reassuring smile so he knows that it wasn't that big of a deal.

"Do you mind letting Himchan see your tigger?" Yongnam asks.

Yongguk shakes his head.

"Go ahead and let him see it."

Yongguk slowly holds out the plush tiger.

It's orange and one of its eyes have been replaced with a button. It looks old, it’s dirty, and covered in stitches.

But Yongguk loves it. He’s had it since birth, and that's all that really matters.

"His name is Tigger," he says, "He's my favorite and he makes me happy."

"Want to see mine?" Himchan asks, digging into his backpack and pulling out his stuffed bear.

Yongguk stares at the bear. It's got a bowtie and overalls. 

It looks newer than his and it's not dirty. It doesn't bother him too much.

"Cute," he mumbles.

"My mommy brought it for me when I was small," Himchan says, "She washes it regularly and it's kind of scary."

"...Washes?"

Himchan nods, "She puts it in the round machine thingy and it spins around a lot."

"That does sound scary."

"It's not all that bad. It's better when your toy is nice and clean."

Maybe Yongguk should ask his mom to clean his. But the last time she cleaned it he threw a fit and cried until he got it back.

He's super attached to his tigger, since he’s had it for so long, so being separated from it for too long can become quite painful.

But if Himchan does it, maybe Yongguk should do it too.

Yongguk turns behind to face Yongnam as Himchan puts his bear back in his backpack.

He'll have to put it in his cubby eventually.

Yongguk whispers something in his brother's ear,

"I like Himchan a lot. He's very nice to me and he doesn't make fun of me."

Yongnam smiles at him. It warms his heart that Yongguk isn't getting picked on for once and that he's making friends.

As his older brother (by a few minutes), it's his duty to keep Yongguk safe and happy.

Himchan turns his attention to the brothers and they talk until it's time to start the school day.

\---

The children are sitting, criss cross applesauce, on the play carpet in front of the teacher.

She says that it's time for introductions since it's the first day of school, and Yongguk's super nervous.

A few different kids go first, introducing themselves and sharing an interesting fact about themselves, then it's Himchan's turn to go.

"I'm Himchan," he says, "I'm six years old."

"Hi, Himchan," the children say back in unison.

"I lost my first tooth last week," he opens his mouth and shows the children the gap in his teeth.

They gasp in awe.

"Himchan's so grown."

"Did it hurt?" A child in the crowd of children asks.

Himchan shakes his head, “Nope.”

The children give him a round of applause as he sits back down on the carpet as the teacher calls up another child.

"Himchan's cool," Yongguk whispers to Yongnam.

Yongnam nods as a reply. He’s focused on the front of the room.

The more children go up and introduce themselves, the more Yongguk's dreading to go up there.

He's not very sure what dreading means, but he's pretty sure that it's not a very good feeling. It leaves an unpleasant feeling in his throat.

Eventually, the teacher calls him up, and he gets very shy.

"Go on," the teacher says, and Yongguk shuffles up to the front of the class.

They're all staring at him, and it makes him visibly uncomfortable. He squeezes his plush toy close to his chest.

"I'm....my name is...I'm Yongguk," he stutters out, face getting red, "I'm six....six years old..."

"Hi, Yongguk," the children say in unison, a few children giggle at Yongguk's stuttering.

That makes him feel even worse. That unpleasant feeling in his throat feels worse than before.

He stands there for a few seconds before deciding what to say for his "interesting fact".

"I...I don't...I don't talk very well," he mutters, "Very shy. I'm very shy..."

The giggling from the children get louder, and he quickly covers his face and sits back in his spot on the carpet.

Tears fill his eyes, and Himchan wipes them away.

"You did good," he whispers, "You did very good."

"Thank....th-thank you...very much..."

Yongnam's visibly angry, but he won't say anything.

He doesn't want to fight a kid on the first day of kindergarten.

The teacher warns them to leave Yongguk alone as he wipes the tears from his eyes.

He hopes that'll make them leave him alone.

It won't.

\---

After a long and boring few hours of learning their ABCs and their 123s, it's time for lunch and recess.

Himchan already knew his letters and his numbers all the way up to twenty.

The kids were mesmerized as Himchan counted to twenty by memory. Most of them can only count to ten on their fingers. Himchan, on the other hand, was taught to count on his fingers and his toes.

They think he's cool, and it fills Himchan up with pride.

He doesn't know what pride is, but he assumes that it's a good thing and a positive feeling.

He sits on the playground, waiting for the twins to come out so they can all play together.

They never come out, and Himchan's concerned.

He doesn't know what that means.

But it's not a good feeling.

He takes his backpack and hurries back to the classroom.

When he reaches on his tippy toes to open the door, there's this awful feeling in his chest.

Yongguk's sitting in the corner, crying his eyes out, while Yongnam's sitting next to him, trying his best to comfort him.

The teacher's sitting in the chair closest to them, trying to comfort Yongguk as well.

"What happened?" Himchan asks as he approaches the two.

"They're making fun of him," Yongnam says, anger filling his tone.

"But why? He's nice--"

"Do you notice how funny he talks? They think it's funny."

That makes Yongguk bury his face into his knees and cry harder.

"Hey," Himchan walks towards him, sitting down in front of him, "Hey, it's okay, don't cry."

"Leave me alone," he whispers.

"I'm not leaving until you stop crying. Look at me."

"Nuh-uh."

"Look at me."

Yongguk doesn't say anything back. He just cries.

Himchan reaches out to grab his face, and Yongguk slaps his hands away.

"Leave me alone," he repeats.

Himchan blinks, trying to fight back his own tears. He just wanted to be helpful. There’s this feeling in his chest that he can’t explain, and it doesn’t feel good at all. It just feels bad.

"He didn't mean it," Yongnam whispers, "He's just upset. I'll make sure he says sorry later--"

"No, it's okay," Himchan says, wiping the tears from his eyes. He's still persistent on making Yongguk happy again. Like he said, he won't leave until Yongguk stops crying.

He reaches out to grab Yongguk's face again, and this time Yongguk gives in.

His face is stained with tears and snot. He sniffles once he sits his head up.

"My mommy does this when I'm sad," Himchan says before placing a soft kiss on Yongguk's forehead.

Yongguk's chest tightens up, but he doesn't really know what that means. Six year olds with limited vocabularies only know so much.

Himchan places another kiss on his forehead, "And that one's because I like you."

Yongguk glances at Yongnam. He's confused.

"What do you say?" Yongnam asks.

"Thank you..."

Himchan smiles brightly, "You're welcome. Do you like gummy worms? I have gummy worms."

"Gummy worms...?"

Himchan nods as he reaches into his bag and pulls out the crumpled up bag of gummy worms, "These."

"Oh. I had those before..."

"You want some?"

Yongguk sniffles and nods.

With his teeth, Himchan rips open the bag and places a gummy worm in Yongguk's palm.

Yongguk sniffs it before putting it in his mouth. He sniffs everything before he puts it in his mouth. Consider it a weird habit.

It's chewy and it's a little sour and it tastes like cherries. Yongguk likes them a lot.

"Thank you..." he smiles a little.

Himchan smiles back before offering the teacher and Yongnam some of his gummy worms.

They accept his offer. Himchan's not too sure what to say to Yongguk to cheer him up, but he's looking for the right words.

"Hey...you do know that you're special, right?"

"Huh? Special...?"

Himchan nods, "You talk different from everyone else, and that doesn't make you dumb or stupid or whatever mean names they call you, you're just special.

Or unique. That's what my mommy calls me. But I don't think you know what unique means."

"What's 'unique'?" 

"It means that you're different from everyone else. It would be boring if people talked the same way. Don't you think?"

"...I guess..."

"Well, when they pick on you again, just remember that you're special and that they're just being mean. Okay?"

Yongguk sniffles again before nodding his head, "Okay."

"Also, you can find me, and me and your brother can beat them up for you."

That makes Yongguk laugh, "I would like that. Thank you a lot."

"It's 'thank you very much', or 'thank you so much'."

"Huh? So what is 'thank you a lot'?"

"I think you mean 'thanks a lot'."

"Oh," Yongguk smiles a gummy smile, "Okay. I think I get it. Thanks a lot."

"Good. You're welcome," Himchan stands to his feet and grabs Yongguk's hand to pull him up.

"Where are we going?" He asks.

"To give them a piece of my mind," Himchan grabs Yongguk's hand and practically drags him back outside.

"Oh...it's okay....you don't have to..."

"But I want to."

"Please, no fighting," the teacher warns, as if her input on anything matters right now.

"'Kay," Himchan says as he stands on his tippy toes to open the door to go back outside.

Yongnam follows close behind.

Himchan and Yongguk's tiny fingers are intertwined with each other, and that weird feeling in Yongguk's chest is back.

It makes him want to cry.

He wants to cry even more when Himchan approaches the children who made fun of him. He hides behind Himchan, Yongnam standing to the side of him.

"Please leave Yonggukie alone," Himchan says, with a stern tone (he doesn't know what stern means, but he means business. He doesn't know what business means either).

Since Himchan's already popular with the other children, they’ll have to listen to him.

The other children stare at him, watching Yongguk poke his head out from Himchan's side.

"You guys really hurt his feelings when you laughed at how he talks. He's just different. In time, he'll learn how to talk like you and me, but until then, he's different and it's really nice, so please leave him alone, okay?"

Yongguk hides behind Himchan when one of the children approach him. 

"We're sorry," the child says in an apologetic tone, "I'll try to never do it again."

The child holds out his hand, and Yongguk hesitantly grabs it and shakes it.

"It's...it's okay."

The child turns to face the other children, and they all nod, indicating that they'll never make fun of Yongguk again.

They’re children, kindergartners at that. They don’t know any better, and were due for some discipline (the teacher’s useless as usual).

"Good," Himchan says with a smile, and Yongnam sighs a sigh of relief.

"Do you want to play with us?" The same child asks.

Yongguk looks at Yongnam for assistance.

"Go ahead," Yongnam says, and Yongguk hesitates to nod.

But he nods. He'll play with them and show them his tigger and they'll be good friends (as long as they don't touch his tigger).

They'll all play together until the teacher calls them back in the classroom for nap time.

As the children gather around the door back to the classroom, Yongguk wanders off.

Bushes of tiny white flowers catch his eye.

They're called baby's breath flowers, and they're very pretty. They remind him of Himchan.

He takes a handful of the flowers before running back to catch up with the other children.

While the other children take their shoes off and set up their cots and their blankets on the carpet, Yongguk sits at his table and starts to write something in crayon on construction paper.

He folds the paper in half and puts the flowers inside the paper and sets it on Himchan's side of the table.

The goes over to get his cot and his blanket before taking his shoes off and rolling it in between Yongnam and Himchan. He lays in it before slowly falling asleep.

\---

Nap time's over, and children are reuniting with their parents since it's time to leave.

Himchan puts his shoes back on and rolls his cot away before noticing a piece of folded construction paper on his side of the table.

He picks up the paper.

It's pink, and it has his name written sloppily on the front with a heart and a smiley face drawn on it.

He opens it and immediately notices the baby's breath flowers.

They're so pretty. His eyes sparkle when he looks at them.

He carefully sets them down, unaware that Yongguk is watching him read the paper:

Himchan,

Thank you for being my friend and sticking up for me. I’m getting better at talking I think, but I still have so much to learn. I hope you and my brother can teach me more and more. I also hope that we'll be friends forever and ever.

\- Yongguk ♡

Himchan smiles widely at the little note, his eye dimple showing.

Yongguk's chest tightens up again, but he still doesn't know what it means.

He notices that Himchan's mother is here to pick Himchan up. He already has his things.

He runs towards Himchan and pulls him into a tight hug before he leaves.

"Thank you," he whispers.

Himchan flinches a little, but his smile grows even wider.

"You're welcome," he says.

"Is this your friend that you were talking about?" Himchan's mother asks.

Himchan nods, "His name is Yongguk and he's very unique. He gave me this," he shows her the card Yongguk wrote for him.

"It's so cute," his mother says, admiring the card.

"Thank you..." Yongguk's getting shy as he releases Himchan.

"I have to go, see you tomorrow," Himchan waves goodbye to Yongguk.

And Yongguk waves back as he waits for his own mother to come pick him up.

Himchan thinks that he had a good first day of kindergarten.

He seemed to have predicted the future, because Yongguk and Himchan ended up going to the same middle school and high school together.

They stayed friends, then became more than friends in high school.

They dated all throughout high school and graduated together.

Now, they live together, in a house surrounded by baby's breath flowers.

The baby's breath symbolizes the innocence and purity of heart that Himchan has. 

That's what made Yongguk fall for him.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm in like 5 bap gcs on twitter and my mutual was like "what if himchan n yongguk were kindergarten classmates" and i was like "say no more"
> 
> so here you go i guess. i'm not sure if kindergartners are capable of falling in love even though i wrote love notes in kindergarten but


End file.
